


Traffic

by Aloof_Introvert



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Abstract, Alcohol, Angels, Citizens of Night Vale - Freeform, Dragons, Figurative Language, Gen, Helicopters, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Poetry, Song Lyrics, Weird imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 23:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5947948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aloof_Introvert/pseuds/Aloof_Introvert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Dear listeners, I'm back again after the break."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traffic

Dear listeners,

The snowcaps would rather not visit us  
Desert dawns only bury the white with dust  
Is the dark the best thing for brightest day?  
A northern chill maybe, but who can say?  
Strange breath shivers out of the weeds at night  
Place by place, they'll win back their ancient right  
To turn blind eyes to conspiracy, lethargy, hypocrisy  
Be the blighted when nobody else is qualified.  
When the earth splits in two with the weight of snow  
You're sipping coffee out of a mug branded "I told you so"  
Oh child, who said the whispering forest is to be feared?  
Looking for a fairytale, we've none of those here.  
For sanctuary, we'll cry when the time is right  
An inky skyline won't paint our dismal kites  
Ocean blue citizens, I know you will listen;  
On to languages lurking by the ponds, and how they glisten  
Your curvature bones are your sturdiest home  
Knees knocking together, cigar smoke like sea foam  
I'm against it, I'm against it, but I can't say why  
Back to the demons, back to the sky.  
Again you ask if the flowers will ever bloom  
The answer is never unless you make room  
Buses run roughshod over their roots  
Stop it, let's not waste our time on the truth  
Anywhere there's tangles there's wine, let's sit on the roof  
The blindness was switched off with a dial  
Wind gusted in invisible spirals  
Blows led to words after a while  
I'm  
Back  
Again after the break  
I say I don't believe in angels, but that doesn't matter  
Saw a dragon leave its carapace in tatters  
A chrysalis split open in its wake  
Helicopter yellow is highlighter-fake  
Fly away on wings bent wrong and soiled  
Towards the fraying edge of this mortal coil  
An unknown person is scarier than I  
Unfamiliar places come up just shy  
Glow with power, it'll keep the nightmares at bay  
In monsoon season I sleep in the rain  
The windowsill isn't enough to let the cocoon fold  
Evening vapors warm off my bottle, it floats away cold  
Sky lines aren't drawn taut enough for my glasses  
And I don't know what I'm feeling until it passes  
All knowing is only a magician's monicker  
The letters stained the glass in the cathedral  
While witches protested against the ethereal  
You were marking the calendars last time I saw you  
Were you carrying a license, were you ocean blue?  
Looking at me, citizens, I see no good fortune  
At least my soul is entirely foreign  
Me with my pinstripes, I feed you horror stories  
With out stoic authors, it's getting quite gory  
Your honeysuckle scent obscures your fear  
Solar flares will sustain us for another year...  
Eclipse the false moon with werewolf's filaments  
Eye the sky, drink the clouds out of the firmament  
Desert drums rattle away until half past one  
Pacific time has done nothing for us  
Octopi sand turns to occupied dust  
How long did it take to learn how to nurture?  
Long enough to forget it was your original nature  
Did you trade your face again for the mask of the geisha?  
You walk on eggshells until you get it back  
Look in the mirror, you're the most suitable mask  
For drums you might deign to learn a bit of morse code  
Hidden languages always resist when you try to decode  
Messages in bottles shatter and sink  
In kimono-wrapped parcels and waves graced with pink  
What cannibal ally have you wrought upon us?  
I get down on my votive knees and pray what I must  
Wrote pallid stories about fatal flaws  
Part vice, part vex, part hex, part claws  
Of crows calling nowhere, ruffling their feathers;  
Me calling everywhere, we can do this together  
Wishes hold power, if only for an hour  
You whisper them, laying in bed, drained and dour  
Never simple, never spelled exactly the way you want it  
Really it's a secret, whether life is legend or myth  
Stopped talking to my neighbors when I heard them singing their songs  
You ripple and stomp, and you know that it's wrong  
Never say never unless you are dying  
Really it's a secret until you quit trying  
Stopped up and walked on  
I'm  
Back  
Again after the break  
The daily drudge seeks drying blood  
Desert craves liquid, or didn't you know, it  
Is not a good winter if it weren't for the snow?  
A broke budget can't pay the spectral bills  
Lost the privilege of crying, and you know that it kills  
Place holders can't be the best thing for blackest day...  
They want green rainstorms lately, but who can say?  
Built towers around the street lamps to ease the ghosts' doubt  
Houses are haunted with signs scrawled "KEEP OUT"  
Just children sing about how the nights get colder  
In case they forget how to feel it once they get older  
Time is nothing in the belly of a whale  
To be ugly is to be everything here,  
Collect my third eye with your patient stare  
Our loving bottles and flasks held up against the night,  
Precious pieces of glass, catching the light,  
Lives don't end until they are shattered  
On rusty red rocks left drying in the desert  
Mantelpieces hold our heads, our heads hold our memories  
All enveloped in buying milk and putting our seatbelts on  
Over the radio we stage-whisper commands  
Town life is half-truth until it's portrayed in different hands  
I'm  
Back  
Again after the break  
I work out the kinks with no little effort  
Watch them unfurl, dancing on the horizon  
The visions scurry into my line of sight  
Holes in my consciousness lead to psychic's plight  
In dreams we see only what we know  
The reality of day is perceived just so  
Skyline silhouettes cast their spells and  
I'm  
Back  
Again after the break  
I feel allegiance to my brother  
Learned too late the name of my mother  
I've glorified the sun day after day  
Got weary of the moon wanting Her say  
Such tired horses nose the desert sand  
A disparate image in a despairing land  
Big raindrops pound us into submission  
Backpack zippers rip and break the transmission  
And stop us hearing the news about the snow  
It's once in a lifetime, let it go  
Pulling on strings won't stutter our collective heart  
Me, I loved every piece of the story (except for the start)  
Down tree limbs, down brooks and everything we can't see  
But listeners, for color and form we have no need  
It's coffee and another drink before a night's rest  
Kind of like when you say softly, "It's for the best"  
Of everywhere, this is our home  
Where stars tumble and sway over drunken dome  
I whisper my thunder where others would scream;  
Am a mumbler, murmurer, mutterer it seems  
Now the birds' voices ring out clearer than mine  
It's a penalty for wasting their time  
Kind people lend stories  
Of places they have been  
Where stray dogs were silent,  
I make my way in  
Come one, come all and listen  
From decades ago arrives nuclear fission  
My skin is stone, gray and death-toned  
Lips sewn shut lest the secrets still shout  
Are you afraid all your love letters will spill out?  
Sewn into this tapestry of monsoon and drought  
Shut the door, shut your eyes, and then shut your mouth  
I implore you to tilt your head to the left and squint;  
Run for you, even though you can't see my shadow sprint  
To ancient lands in better hands  
Where heatwaves rising become marching bands  
The plastic bags surely won't clog up your future  
Stray threads fray and poke out of our sutures  
Dogs lie and pant in the sun till it sets  
Won't fight it, whisper softly, "It's for the best"  
Find me if you forget me, I'm in every half-formed thought  
Me, I can't decide where to go (the land or snow, the rich or the poor?)  
Where indeed dear listeners, answer me before  
The  
Broadcast  
Breaks  
Off--

This has been.  
Traffic.

**Author's Note:**

> If you take the first word of every line and string them all together, it spells out most of the lyrics to "Desert Pacific Octopi" by Squalloscope.  
> : )


End file.
